Extinction of animals

(Brendan Woithe) says:
>I am currently involved in research into extinction of animals for a future
>problem solving competition, and I was wondering if anyone had any information
>on this topic.
David Raup has a fun introductory book on how chance events contribute
greatly to evolution, called Extinction: Bad Genes or Bad Luck. And
you can't leave out the Alvarez and Alvarez, 1980 paper on the bolide
that supposedly wiped out the dinosaurs and paved the way for the mammals.
Maybe you can also try Stephen J. Gould's Wonderful Life, on the Burgess
Shale and its "bizarre" life forms. I still can't get over the way
Hallucinogenia looks.